The Top 10 Funny Birthday Cards

At the Comedy Card Company, we specialise in funny greeting cards and our aim is to have the best selection of humorous cards available online. Here, we take a look what makes a birthday card funny and also reveal our current top ten bestselling birthday cards.

We sell a lot of greeting cards with a wide variety of humour from 'everyday' cards, such a general humour and birthday cards, to Christmas cards as well as special occasions, like Valentines and Father's Day, etc. As you might imagine, birthday cards make up a large proportion of our sales of everyday cards. In this article, we take a look at what subjects are popular for card designers and cartoonists when they create their humorous birthday cards. We will also count down our top ten most popular birthday cards.

As is often said, birthdays must be good for you, as the more you have, the longer you live(!) It is both a day of celebration (yay!) and also commiseration as each passing year also means that we are another year older (boo!).

Cath Tate / Simon Drew

In terms of the celebratory side of birthdays, the humour often revolves around drinking too much or eating cake (or both). What would a birthday be without a good party? It is no real surprise that a lot of birthday cards feature alcohol and the resultant consequences!

Pigment / Rose Made a Thing / Paperlink

Some card designers pick up on the increasing number of candles that are appearing on the recipient's cake, some even suggest that the fire brigade is on standby!

UK Greetings / Cath Tate

Some cards refer to the present that the sender has bought for the recipient - or more typically the present they haven't got for them!

Brainbox Candy / Traces of Nuts

The floodgates tend to spill open when card designers decide to poke fun at the recipient's advancing age. There are multiple angles that they pick up on regarding changes that happen to our bodies as we age: our eyesight deteriorates, we can't remember as much, we're not as mobile as we once were . . . Let's face it, this is pretty much a deteriorating scenario . . .

Memory Sorry I seem to have forgotten what I was going to say at this point . .

Wrinklies / Brainbox Candy

Deteriorating eyesight When we start to have to hold that book / menu / smart phone just a little bit further away so we can focus properly . . . reading glasses can't be far away. We love this card from the Waving at Trains range.

UK Greetings

Water works Whether it's needing to go to the toilet more often or starting to become a little incontinent, card publishers cheekily pick up on this part of ageing. The birthday card by Dean Morrish is one for good friends with an appropriate sense of humour as it's also quite rude!

Dean Morris / Pigment

Mobility As our bodies age, we just can't do things in the same way we used to and card publishers just love to poke fun at this . . .

Rosie Made a Thing / Wrinklies / Icon

Wisdom (or lack of it) All these years of experience make us more learned and wise. This is surely the saving grace of getting older. However, just as we gain all this wisdom, we also begin to forget what we have learnt!

Simon Drew / Harold's Planet / Pigment / Quitting Hollywood

Of course, there is always denial to fall back on. That is, deny we are the age that people think we are or perhaps skip the odd year or two along the way. This can be a great way make out weare younger than we really are. But beware, you need to keep a mental note of what your made-up age is . . .

Drama Queen / Hunky Dory / Pigment / UK Greetings

Another route that some publishers have used to remind the recipient about their age is to compare what some famous people have achieved by the time they were the same age. Both in the sense of cheekily suggesting that the recipient has achieved relatively little compared to those magnificent people but also sometimes in the comforting, reassuring angle that there is still time to do wonderful things.

Paper Plane / Splimple

Top 10 Funny Birthday Cards

Anyway, let's take a look at the current top ten birthday cards. These are based on actual recent sales.

At number 10 is a great new card from Traces of Nuts showing a man who has made some ingenious modifications to his hairdryer to reflect his changing hair distribution! Lovely humour from cartoonist Tim Whyatt.

In 9th position is another new design this time by Rosie Made a Thing. A relatively new publisher, Rosie Made a Thing has become enormously popular within a short period of time, already a winner of a Henries Award for Best Humorous Range. (The Henries are Oscar's equivalent for the greeting card industry.) I feel I should ask what your favourite dinosaur is at this point . . .

At number eight is a witty illustration by Simon Drew. Simon is a talented artist with a particular flair for puns and wordplay. Here, he shows a climber finally making it to the summit of Mount Everest who then can't remember what we came up here for!

In 7th position is a card from Pigment which is a brilliant play on words, welcoming the recipient to their 'wonder years'. However it goes on to reveal that this isn't so much their golden years to which they are referring but a more literal interpretation of wonder years, wondering where they have left things or what day it is. Very cheeky indeed.

Coming in at number 6 is another great card from Rosie Made a Thing, suggesting that the recipient is still young enough to pull off wearing some leopard skin and look fabulous (great card for him!).

In 5th place in our bestselling birthday card list is another card from Traces of Nuts. A butterfly is pulled over by the police and feels he has to explain why the photo in his driving licence is so different from his appearance now. Rather than age taking effecthere, it's more like metamorphosis.

At number 4 is a fine caption card by Pigment, showing a lady standing next to a large pile of empty bottles. That must have been some party. She is ashamed, not by the sheer number of bottles, more that some bottles still have some alcohol in them!

Taking bronze is a funny card from the Fleet Street range. This range features spoof newspaper front pages. The headlines in this edition shows a lady in a state of excitement and readiness to celebrate her birthday (or perhaps not).

In silver position is another great card from Pigment. In a classic doctor patient consultation setting, the doctor reveals that the man's dodgy hip is the least of his worries and they have decided to keep his hip and replace everything else!

Taking gold, and our current bestselling birthday card, is this cheeky design by Paperlink. In a dummy questionnaire, it asks if the recipient is childish. Going by the drawing of a penis (albeit in the 'no' box) I think we all know the true answer to this question.

Here is a video which runs through our top ten (just like Top of the Pops isn't it?)

There are some great quotes from famous people, describing their experience of birthdays and getting older. Some are humorous, some are inspirational, some are thought-provoking and some are just plain true.

Mark Twain - 'Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.'

Lucille Ball - 'The secret of staying young is to love honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age.'

Bob Hope - 'You know you're getting older when the candles cost more than the cake.'

George Bernard Shaw - 'Youth is wasted on young people.'

Nicky Gumbel - 'Today is the oldest you have been, and the youngest you will be. Make the most of it!'

Pope John XXIII - 'Men are like wine. Some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.'

Charles Schulz - 'Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.'

Satchel Paige - 'How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are.'

Robert Frost - 'A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.'

Norman Wisdom - 'As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two.'

What better way to end this article on birthdays and getting older than to take a look at the wonderful words of Bob Dylan's 'Forever Young' song. Remember getting older is unavoidable but growing up is very much optional. May we all stay forever young!

May God's bless and keep you alwaysMay your wishes all come trueMay you always do for othersAnd let others do for youMay you build a ladder to the starsAnd climb on every rungMay you stayMay you stay forever young

Comments

Leave a comment

Your name

Your email

Your comment

Comments have to be approved before they appear here

LATEST POSTS

Funny Father's Day cards to make Dad laugh

Father's Day is on 21st June this year so now is the time to pick a funny card and make him laugh. We love Father's Day at the Comedy Card Company because the card publishers always let loose and throw... read more

New funny greeting cards from Rosie Made a Thing

We are delighted to present new funny greeting cards from the award winning Rosie Made a Thing range. It doesn't seem that long ago when we first stocked some of Rosie Made a Thing's cards (I think it was late... read more

Funny cards - hilarious captions to images taken from Ladybird books

New cards featuring funny captions to Ladybird images. We are delighted to present new releases in the Ladybird card range from Kiss me Kwik. When I was at school (only a handful of years ago you understand) I remember visiting the school... read more